Juniper & Arnaldo - We Met In Manchester

Juniper & Arnaldo - We Met In Manchester
If you're into a certain strain of deeper-than-thou house and techno and live in Manchester, the meandyou night will have some fond memories attached to it. For everyone else, one look at their event history will show how incredibly on-point their bookings have always been. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that residents Juniper and Arnaldo know their onions.

Taking a side each, Juinper opens the A with "Quiet Moon." Steam-train hats chug along while a filter gets tweaked on the floating melody, resonance ringing out into the reverb. Compared with their work on Underground Quality and the stellar "Jovian Planet" on Ominira, "Moon" lacks a little. Things however do pick up on "Selenic"; crisp, analogue toms pan across the soundstage while emotive pads and an LFO heavy synth creep in slowly. The drums fade away and the track is reduced to all but a whisper before the kick returns and a snare fill takes things to the next level.

The standout tracks here reside on the B; "A Song Name of One Word" fits the Smallville aesthetic so well it could have easily been included on Asper Clouds and I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. That's not to say that it's a copy of Rau, just that the moods and feelings evoked come from the same palette. Rimshot meets space echo in the background while intricate hat work introduces the atmosphere and vocal snippets. Once the wistful organ chords come in, a second vocal arrives and the groove evolves seemingly organically. "Rain" is an echoed, melancholy to and fro between chord stab and 909; classic deep house tropes, but delivered with the confidence of a seasoned and skilled producer.